


When a Plan Comes Together

by Dracavia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-22 11:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4833185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracavia/pseuds/Dracavia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The queen has been taken from him and the heir has abdicated his right to the throne, the people of Asgard are clamouring for the royal line to be secured. Fortunately a trickster always has a plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When a Plan Comes Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smallbrownfrog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallbrownfrog/gifts).



> This picks up a short time after Thor:TDW, and before the events of Avengers:AOU.
> 
> Work's been more than a bit hectic and time-consuming lately, so I'm afraid this fic hasn't been beta'ed. Hopefully I caught everything that needed to be in the rereads though.
> 
> smallbrownfrog, I hope you enjoy this. I would have loved to have written some of the scenarios you proposed, but unfortunately I didn't come up with any ideas off of them that I could realistically get completed in time for the deadline. So instead I focused on the bits of your prompts around gen fic and Loki's characterisation.

Odin scanned the room of milling nobles with bored disinterest. Normally court days such as these were the highlight of his week. No petitions to hear, no bureaucracy to preside over, no lives hanging in the balance upon his each action and word. Certainly the rest had its appeal at times, but these days were meant to be ones he could work his plans upon in a more light-hearted fashion. Engendering court alliances that would further later aims, making fools of the ones that both were and weren't needed for his plans.

Perhaps the best moments were the ones where he made fools of them all and they laughed at their own expense without even realising it. Except perhaps for a clever few that were no fools and understood his games almost as well as he. Odin's eye lingered on a beautiful blonde woman who was working her way deftly through the nobles in a way he'd always appreciated.

Yes, Amora would suit his purposes well. And if he was lucky – not that he left anything to luck these days, he was certain he'd used up his supply of that for quite a while – she might just prove to be more ally than pawn.

He let his gaze linger more obviously on Amora as she worked her way near the base of the throne. Noticing his observation, she excused herself from her conversation and made her way to the steps up to the throne. She knelt upon one knee, settling her skirt effortlessly around her.

"My King, did you have need of me? I could feel your regard tracing my path about the room." Amora lifted her gaze to look upon Odin with an expression of equal parts mischief and coyness. If he didn't know her so well, he thought the coyness might have been convincing, the audience they were gaining certainly found it so.

Odin stood and walked unhurriedly down the steps to stand just above her and offered her a hand to her feet.

"I desire a private audience, if the Lady finds herself agreeable of course."

Amora's smile broadened as she took his hand and stood. "Whatever my King wishes."

The room had gone silent during their little exchange, but as they left the room with Amora's arm tucked neatly into Odin's own, the gathered nobles burst back into life with whispers of mixed excitement and fury. The latter mostly from the other young, unattached women.

Odin and Amora traversed the halls to his private sitting-room without a word, the quiet broken only by his sharply spoken "Leave us!" to the guards upon their arrival.

The doors closed, leaving them in privacy, and Odin released Amora's arm to walk over to the window and gaze out.

There was silence and then only the sound of Amora's steps as she approached to stand not quite at Odin's side.

"May my King forgive my impertinence, but you did not appear to be enjoying court today. Your enjoyment has waned notably these last few weeks."

Odin grimaced and when he spoke, his words dripped bitterness as though it was a tangible thing. "Their Queen has been passed for little more than a season, and already they clamour for her replacement. For the opportunity to _be_ her replacement. As if they could come close to replacing her!" he scoffed.

"The court has never liked uncertainty, and now they are without both Queen and heir. You will need to provide one or both to ease their minds."

"You think I don't know that?" he snapped. "No, they will have their heir, but there will be no substitution for Frigga. The next Queen that sits upon that throne will be her heir, not her replacement."

Amora quirked her brow at the implication the next ruler of Asgard would be female. "And where will you find this mysterious scion?"

"Not yet born." He finally turned to look at her once more. "You are a distant cousin of Frigga's."

"You know I am." Amora's lips curled in an amused smile. "And who would sire the favoured daughter of mine? Odin... or one of his sons?"

Odin's eye narrowed. "There is only one son of Odin. Loki is dead and even before had been mutually renounced."

"And yet here he stands as King!" she declared gleefully.

But a moment passed where he considered refuting her words, but if he wanted her as a willing ally that might not actually serve him best. So instead an uncharacteristic smile split Odin's face and he allowed a chuckle to roll forth that rose slightly in pitch as his appearance dissolved in a ripple of gold magic.

"What gave me away, my dear friend?" Loki asked with all traces of his earlier bitterness gone.

"I always doubted the words of your death, you are too sly a creature to be easily disposed of. But I was not certain of your deception until this very conversation."

Loki gave her a chagrined look. "My continued existence had a great deal more to do with luck and a quirk of biology than cleverness I'm afraid. For the first time since learning the truth of it, I have had reason to find myself grateful for my Jotun birth." Amora gave him a wide-eyed look of genuine surprise, so he continued on.

"As Thor watched what he believe to be my death, I was convinced of it as well. The creature had run me through, with more than a glancing blow to my heart. What I was unaware of until the... incident we shall call it, was an unfamiliar aspect of Jotun physiology that lends itself to their great hardiness. A secondary heart."

"Surely you'd have realised before then if you had such a thing."

"I assure you I did not, though the Lady Eir must have been accomplice to Odin's machinations as she'd have certainly seen it at some point during my youth. I was injured often enough thanks to Thor's adventures."

Amora stepped close and lay her hand upon his chest. "And that second heart is what keeps you alive now?"

"They both do. It kept the blood moving slowly in my veins, buying me time until my magic and natural healing abilities could take care of the rest. I was only just coming back to myself when Odin's guards arrived. One found me and before he could alert the others to my continued existence, I disposed of him and transformed his body to resemble my own. By then taking his place and returning, I enabled my current deceptions."

"And if someone thinks to query the disappearance of this missing guard? Unless you've disposed of Odin similarly and given his body over to the guardsman's kin?" she asked with a mixture of doubt and glee at the idea of the King brought so low.

"Ah but you see, I recognized the guard, which is what made the opportunity so perfect. He was an odious creature, with no wife and little kin. He took repeated delight in my losses at more brutish combat against Thor and his friends, and as you know I never forget one who's wronged me."

"Still, someone must look for him eventually."

"I subtly filed paperwork for his transfer to the Reaches. By the time anyone truly thinks to look for him, they will assume him dead at the hand of marauders from outwith the realms. He will receive more honourable credit in death than he deserves, as a valiant hero who died to protect the realms, worthy of a seat in Valhalla!" Loki grinned at the cleverness of his own plot.

"And Odin?"

"Asleep in the plinth beneath his own throne, from whence I may siphon his own magic and the Odin Force when I have need of it."*

"Indefinitely?"

"Until Asgard has the heir she deserves, too well entrenched for Odin to unseat her. And when I have fixed the errors of rule caused by his stubborn pride and senility."

"Ah, you wish to prove him wrong about you before going on your way," she said knowingly.

"I wish to prove him the fool he is, and I will."

"Hmm, perhaps a bit of both?" Amora pondered, but Loki refused to give the words weight by further acknowledgement.

"We digress. I did not ask you here to reminisce about the past months. You have always desired power and acclaim. I will not put you on the throne, but I am offering you the opportunity to be seen as the King's consort for a time, and mother to the heir – whom you may raise alongside me if it is your wish."

"If you had wished entrance to my bed, you hardly had to go to such great lengths as these my dear," Amora purred.

"The child will not be of my seed, she will be of Thor's."

That knocked Amora truly speechless for a moment.

"With your blood and Thor's running through her veins, her claim to the throne will be without reproach. The citizens will of course believe she is Odin's."

"And how have you convinced Thor to take part in this plan of yours?"

"I don't need to." Loki grinned like the cat that ate the canary. "The perfect opportunity has presented itself, if you think you're good enough to steal something right from under the Avengers' noses?"

"Oh I do like a challenge," Amora told him with relish and grinned.

~*~*~*~*~*~

There was a crash behind him, and Bruce turned to see his rack of test-tubes smashed on the floor. Not far off Dummy stood, waving his arm at the mess as though wondering if he should clean it up. Bruce sighed and rubbed his temples to ease the headache that was brewing. The oldest of Tony's robots had always been... quirky, but he'd been particularly so since his retrieval and repair from the Pacific. Tony was still working on smoothing out some lingering clumsiness.

"Go on, Dummy. You made the mess, so you might as well clean it up."

Dummy gave a beep of protest, but he wheeled off to get the dust pan and broom.

"He protests that he did not knock your vials over, Dr. Banner," Jarvis translated.

"Well I certainly didn't, and did you see anyone else in here at the time?"

"...I did not. I will run a diagnostic on his memory sensors once he's finished his current task."

"That's fine, now could you get Tony on the phone? He can go talk to Thor about getting fresh samples since it's his pet that ruined the last ones. I am not going through that awkward conversation again."

"Certainly, sir."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Amora appeared in his private study as he was going over the latest trade treaty with Alfheim. 'Odin' looked up to see her lounging against the windowsill will a grin on her face.

"You got it then?"

"Child's play," she assured him and held up a handful of vials that glowed faintly with the light of a stasis spell. "Now to negotiate terms."

"...We already negotiated, Amora. Do not raise my ire by trying to play me now, I can easily rearrange my plans to get what I want."

"Not quite. I checked my books, and I don't have the spell we need to ensure our heir is female. However, I know someone who does..."

"Lorelei... She escaped her cell during Malekith's attacks, and is marked for death along with the others who escaped by Odin's edict." He looked at her shrewdly. "What do you purpose?"

"I happen to know she has recently arrived in a remote region on Earth. Send someone you can trust to retrieve her alive. I will negotiate for the spell from her in exchange for her life and freedom from further incarceration provided she abides by exile from the Nine. Taurmarine should suit her well, don't you think?"

'Odin' chuckled. "They already revere their warrior queens, she'll fit right in."

"Precisely."

They shared a grin, oh how they both loved when a plan came together.

**Author's Note:**

> * Credit goes to Like a Hurricane for the idea of stashing Odin beneath his own throne. The irony of it was just too delicious to pass up.


End file.
